Hey I'm new here as well. I, myself, have started a forum based site not so long ago. I use free forums @ www.phpbb.com . There are also forums that you can pay for, I guess they should be better since you have to pay for them, those are vBulletin @ www.vbulletin.com and also Invision powere boards, I am not sure about their site. Hope this helped :cheesy:

Hey, if you need a free forum board and want to avoid the hassle of starting one yourself i suggest you try http://www.proboards.com/index.html
very good free forum boards, i use them for my site that i just started
www.ckita.com . if you find this helpful please sign my guestbook! :)
thk u

Among free and open source software, phpBB tops my list. Fairly good product, huge MOD database, and pretty good support.

If you haven't got much time, and want to see what the new phpbb3 can offer, just try it out on this host : << snipped >>
Hope this can help!

phpBB is the best...

but to think about security, the latest version of vBullettin is the most secure..

so you have to choose.. :D

Yes install phpBB latest version.

For Free i say PHPbb and paid VB but like most of the site owners use PhpBB so its more Vulnerable but they always provide patches Phpbb is easy to use with lots of mods , always backup your database and update your forum.

Just use a free one for now. They all do basically the same thing. When you get big enough, let your IT worry about it.

With http://www.forumotion.com you can even domain forward, which makes it real easy.

I have made my first Linux Community portal that use joomla website as the content management system . I have install forum and chat section there. Try visits my website at my signature below. I am a freelance webmaster ... I can make an interactive website for you...

I had started a forum like this but got no where because even after trying everything I was unable to get readers and members.

I am using phpbb3, a nice forum software for my website, visit here www.saynow.in